JIM THORPE, Pa. — The deadline to register to vote in the 2024 presidential election has come and gone. Staff at the Carbon County Election office has jumped into handling the next phase of preparations.
"Once we finished that, we started hitting the mail-in ballots. They are overwhelming. We have them on the SURE system coming in, applications and, they are also coming in through the mail," said Carbon County director of elections, Jennifer Ketchledge.
Ketchledge says more than 46,000 people are registered to vote in Carbon County.
So far, more than 7,600 people have requested mail-in ballots. Right now, staff say the main focus is filling those application requests.
"If you didn't receive an email from us stating that we received your ballot, understand that within the next couple of days, you should receive something. Right now, the most important thing to do is making sure we get those mail-in ballots out," explained Ketchledge.
On Election Day, they continue counting those mail-in ballots until every ballot is scanned. The county also received $224,000 as part of the state election integrity grant for additional resources.
"We just put something in for polling books and stuff. We are trying to get electronic polling books through that grant but pretty much for the workers, the rovers," said Ketchledge.
Officials say if voters are heading to the polls in person, they should expect high voter turnout since it is a presidential election year.
"Be patient with all of your poll workers and election workers. We are all doing above and beyond for this election to run smoothly for everybody," said Ketchledge.
Mail-in ballots must be mailed back or hand-delivered to the office on Susquehanna Street in Jim Thorpe.
Ballots must be in the office by 8 p.m. on election night.